"It's not you, it's me."

I have a new website!!

Please click this link to find more up to date work!

www.kevinmxdermott.com

Thank you!!

"It's not you, it's me."
Spray Paint Stencil'd on Canvas
16" X 16"
April 2011

I first saw Fight Club in theaters when I was 18 or 19 years old and it broke my brain. How the hell did I not see that twist coming throughout the movie when there are so many clues along the way [nice spoiler save... eh?]? In one particularly epic scene, the narrator, played by Edward Norton, is beating the beauty out of a blond Jared Leto and, in voice over, he says: "I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn't screw to save its species [...]"

I fell in love with the idea that the species being labeled "endangered" by us, humans, has no clue that they are anything but fine and therefore, don't feel any urgency to procreate. It frustrates US that they won't screw to save themselves because their endangerment is ultimately, our fault, and we feel guilty [but that's for another post].

Just recently I thought of these two pandas who are considering mating but then one says to the other in classic lazy break-up fashion: "It's not you, it's me."

This made me giggle all by myself the whole time I was making it. I decided to go with Chinese symbols to make it a little less obvious and also to stimulate discussion.

10+ years later, Fight Club continues to be one of my favorite movies of all time and Chuck Palahniuk, the author, has gained a spot in my short list of favorite writers. My top picks from his ever-growing portfolio are Fight Club & Invisible Monsters [still the only book to give me literal, and not just figurative, shivers]. An honorable mention goes to Pygmy for the amazing consistency of the style in which it's written [it's also pretty hilarious throughout].

So I hope you all enjoy the Pandas. I hope they help open up the discussion of "man playing God" a little or at least give you a quick snicker.

Here's a picture of myself and Chuck from his book release tour for Rant in 2000 something. He was "officially" done taking pictures but allowed this last one. Look how young I look!


On a related-unrelated side-note, for those curious about the Man playing God theory, I strongly suggest reading the books by Daniel Quinn: Ishmael & My Ishmael. Both philosophical novels are similar insofar as they are for the most part a telepathic discussion between a wise old gorilla and a man [Ishmael] or a young girl [My Ishmael]. Both books address from different viewpoints the question of today's world and "how did things get the way they are?" Very interesting stuff.

My people! Sping is here!
You know what that means... no... not leisurely chilling... at least, not before you help your parents set-up their yard and stuff... That's what I'm off to do right now... Gazeebo away!

Here's some appropriate gazeebo-panda music courtesy of Joe Beats:

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Voodooo Ink Tattoo Shop presents Choose The Art of Kevin McDermott

Voodooo Ink Tattoo Shop presents
Choose The Art of Kevin McDermott

Friday, April 8th 2011
7pm to 10pm
4148 rue St-Denis [corner rue Rachel]
Metro Mont-Royal

Grab your friends and come check out some cool art, a new tattoo shop and chill out with good people... it's the perfect jump off to your weekend!
Tell your mom... she will definitely want to know about this!

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Here's the Facebook event page for more info.

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Evan & Rachel

Evan & Rachel
Spray Paint Stencil'd on Canvas
22" X 28"
March 2011
SOLD

Hello again all you wonderful readers out there. It's spring time once again and for those of us [like me] who live in Quebec, that means a bunch of stuff we haven't done in a while due to the snow and cold. For me, this means a few things but mostly biking & long boarding [with my dog Umaa of course]. What else does spring mean? It means that summer is around the corner and for a lot of people [not so much for me] that means one thing: Wedding Season.

My cousin got married about 3 years ago to his wife Rachel. This year, for her birthday, he's commissioned me to make a painting of the two of them from their wedding day. Now, I haven't been in contact with this particular cousin since I was young enough to go see Return of the Jedi in theaters, so of course, I was surprised, honored and super excited. It gave me a chance to touch base with him and also to create something that will live with him and his family forever.

Evan and Rachel live in Whitehorse, Yukon with their 2 kids Nigel and Decland and I wish them all the best.

[...]

Ryan Gosling [Gus-ling]

I have a new website!!

Please click this link to find more up to date work!

www.kevinmxdermott.com

Thank you!!

Ryan Gus-ling
Spray Paint Stencil'd on Canvas
16" X 12"

March 2011
SOLD

Here's a little something I threw together today.

It's my version of Ryan Gosling if he had been a child born with the "sickness" from the graphic novel series Sweet Tooth by Ontario resident Jeff Lemire. The series is still ongoing and I'm finding it quite entertaining so far although it may not be everyone's cup of tea. In a post-apocalyptic rural world, kids are born with various degrees of animal mutations and the main kid character Gus is born with deer features. I will leave it at that for now and let everyone check out the series for themselves.


What I do suggest to everyone though, graphic novel lovers or not, is to pick up the Essex County trilogy which almost brought me to tears on more than one occasion. In fact, first thing tomorrow I think I'm gonna start reading it again.

Here's a link to Jeff Lemire's website where you can find info about him and his body of work as well as a link to his blog.

It's bicycle season again people... let's make some green love!

DISCLAIMER: The title of this post was such a cheesy play on words that I simply had to do it... bad puns are the new good puns!

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The Number 7

The Number 7
Spray Paint Stencil'd on Skateboard
December 2010
SOLD

Here's a piece that was made custom at the end of 2010 [I had to wait to post it because it' was a gift]. Madeleine, the girl who commissioned it wanted a soccer player with the number 7 to give to her brother on his birthday. She told me he is a die-hard soccer fan and used to wear the number 7. It also turns out that her boyfriend had previously purchased one of my first ever decks a few years back. It was a very basic image of Mickey Mantle. She wanted something similar in it's look and simplicity.

So I fired up the ol' Google Image search and found this guy Bastian Schweinsteiger. I don't know anything about him except that now, our lives are forever connected in this painting I've made of him exclusively because he plays soccer and wears number 7. I hope he's not a player that people really hate or anything like that!

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Custom Table Top

I have a new website!!

Please click this link to find more up to date work!

www.kevinmxdermott.com

Thank you!!

Custom Table Top

Spray Paint Stencil'd on Wood
24" X 48"
March 2011

We've had this perfectly good table in our living room for a while now and my girlfriend has been bugging me to get a new one to replace it. I've refused multiple times based on the fact that I don't think it's a good idea to spend hard earned money on stuff that isn't needed. After some back and forth, she gave in to my reasoning but it wasn't without a counter offer: Paint it!


To further entice me she took 2 days to strip it and reveal the great wood grain that had been suffocated under brown paint for who knows how long and from then... while she was at work I put on some movies and started the taping, cutting & spraying...

Before I knew it, I had watched Trainspotting, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and The Losers [instead of music sometimes, I like to put on movies I've seen before and listen to them while I work] and we now have a brand n'used table just waiting to be re-varnished... but that's not my department! Gift ideas much?

Take care folks!
Things could be worse...
All my positive energy goes out to the good people of Japan in their time of need...

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Elephants & Thank You's

Elephants & Thank You's

The dust is beginning to settle from last Friday's show and I'm only now starting come down...

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who helped me out with the event's preparation as well as the event itself. A big, heartfelt thanks also goes out to each and everyone who came out to show love and share the good vibe. Of course, I couldn't live with myself without giving a huge shout out to the musicians who were there to provide the soundtrack for the evening.

Now... on to the elephants!

This started the week before the show when it was suggested to me that I make a bunch of smaller prints for the smaller spenders [no offense, I'm a very small spender!] to be able to take something home. It was so genius I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner.

My girlfriend is a huge fan of elephants and has been bugging me to make her one for a while now so I figured it was time for it to happen. One thing led to another and I made a limited series of 8 small similar yet different elephants on cardboard and one giant one on untreated canvas.

7/8 elephants are now gone which leaves the [now even more elusive] last one sitting at Sub V waiting for someone to come pick it up. Not to mention that the giant elephant was talked about a lot during the event but no one picked it up... So it's still up for grabs as well!

Before I forget, peace to Mark Gravel from Punchline Clothing who was the winner of the raffle and got to take home a portrait of Slug from Atmosphere. Yeah!

Finally,
Since last Thursday, there's been an article up on the Nightlife.ca website about me and I couldn't be more flattered. Thanks a lot to Brian Bentley for posting it and supporting the local scene.

I think I'm going to go snowboarding.

[...]

Beat & Cuts: Verissage & Beat Session @ Sub V

I have a new website!!

Please click this link to find more up to date work!

www.kevinmxdermott.com

Thank you!!

Beat & Cuts:
Verissage & Beat Session @ Sub V
March 4th, 7pm - 9pm

Oh what an emotional couple of weeks it's been... and it continues to be.

Family illness has made it so that I've been back at mom's house since early February and we now have a house full of relatives from far and wide, most of whom we haven't seen for more than 10-15 years. The circumstances are terrible but it's great to see everyone together from every corner of Canada.

Throughout all this emotional commotion I've tried my best to keep my head on since I have an expo coming up on March 4th at Sub V.

It's been almost 2 years since the last time I was there and I couldn't be more excited that they've invited me back. For the occasion, I'm gonna be showcasing my most recent work, some of which can be seen in previous posts.

As well, I've invited some good friends to come and make some good old instrumental hip-hop speaker busting noise: KenLo Craqnuques, V-Looper and Maxim Robin.

If that wasn't enough to get you interested... I will be raffling off a portrait of Slug from Atmosphere [see last post].

I look forward to seeing all of you on the 4th of March... it's from 7pm to 9pm so don't be too fashionably tardy or else you may miss out!!

Peace and crackers and see you all very soon!

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